August 29 2013 – Your senses are assaulted with an opening volley of eye-watering human carnage, desperation and suffering. The devastation that was the 2010 Haitian earthquake ended many lives but in its wake unearthed many new stories. As the global relief effort takes shape, Ex-Pat Haitians around the world fielded a gauntlet of probative questions on the health and welfare of their family members back home. Such was not the case for Judith Craig, you see she’s been away from her motherland for 27 years and still doesn’t know who her biological parents are. This is one of the perplexing dilemmas at the crux of director Sonia Godding’s insightful documentary into the convoluted world of interracial adoption, in Adopted ID.
On October 12th, 1979, the precarious life of Judith Craig began in a ditch covered in bugs just outside of Cap Haitian. It was through the love and support that Jim and Juanita Craig, a young Canadian family with kids of their own adopted baby Judith in 1980. With a strong religious foundation, Jim Craig a church minister said, ‘We believe in a god who loves children, who teaches us about compassion and the teachings of Jesus and so that’s how we prayed and we felt that god really said to us to share our family with children who didn’t have a family’. For Judith, growing up in Canada in a middle class lifestyle afforded her riches unparalleled to what she experienced in Haiti but still something was missing. Questions surrounding all aspects of her mother’s decision to abandon her continues to haunt her. So, after 27 years, Judith made a pilgrimage back to Port-au Prince to try and find her biological parents and give herself some much needed closure. With very little French and even less Creole at her disposal, Judith began her journey of discovery.
Powerful in its direction, Adopted ID tackles universal issues within the adoption process head on. Issues surrounding extended family acceptance, cultural integration, interracial identity and family dynamics all received equal billing as director Godding transcend Judith’s personal story to a wider audience. With most young black girls in today’s society, the beauty myth soon reared its ugly head manifesting into the unnerving politics surrounding black hair and self esteem. Judith was no exception. This became yet another thing the Craigs’ had to contend with during Judith’s formative years.
The ebb and flow of trying to find ones family in a foreign land after 27 years played out like a detective drama as Judith coordinates, with the help of a translator, a series of interviews with mixed results. While staying at Delmas 91, a boys home that doubles as an adoption guest house, Judith was able to get a unique perspective on the adoption process and in a strange twist witnessed first hand elements that lead to her adoption. As rewarding as it is for these children, Judith is still left with the uneasy feeling that interracial adoption strips the child of their culture.
Review: 3.5 out of 5: The complexities of interracial adoption is constantly fraught with challenging situations that will always test the mettle of any family. We don’t live in a colour blind society and its for this reason that stories like Judith Craig’s will resonate with a mainstream audiences. Judith’s unending quest to be made whole by unearthing her past is all that she wants. With the release of Adopted ID, Godding has crafted an issues driven, thought provoking documentary worthy of further discussions on both the social and political fronts.
Final Thought: Sometimes going home is harder than you think.
Genre: Documentary
Country: Canada, Haiti, UK, USA
Language: English
Production Year: 2012
Runtime: 62 minutes
Director: Sonia Godding
Writer: Andrew Togobo (story)
Producers: Sonia Godding, Andrew Togobo
Cast: Judith Craig (herself)
